River Ranch Reflections

River Ranch Reflections
9x12
Daily Paintworks

Cattails at the Ranch

Fall is in the air and I went to the ranch to paint on Monday Afternoon.  I noticed that the cattails are turning a lovely deep red color and so I painted this scene looking towards the Rio Grande River. I have posted this on the Daily Paintworks site and put it up for auction starting at $75.00. All proceeds of this sale will go to the Help the Children of Africa fund.  The UN has said up to 400,000 children in the Horn of Africa could die without aid and up to 11 million people require food assistance. In March of this year, over 1,500 artists and buyers stepped up and sold and bought fine art, through our Help Japan Challenge, to help the people of Japan. We hope to create the same opportunity to help the children starving in the Horn of Africa due to the devistating dought. To make bid, click here

Summer Greens

I am getting ready to attend the PAAC show which will be held at the Saks Gallery in Denver - I will post the information about the show tomorrow.

The painting above was painted at the ranch.  It was late afternoon , quite a beautiful day (no bugs). I painted this on heavy illustration board that has been coated with shellac.  I love the way this surface works - nice drag yet you can put the paint down without it sliding around.  The painting below was painted just earlier that the one above. I stood in the same spot for both paintings and just looked at different views.  It saves the work of having to move the easel around. Just call me the lazy painter...

Well more on the PAAC show tomorrow.

Tangled Trees at Sunset

Now that we are in the between Fall/beautful color stage and the winter/beautiful snow stage, I find it hard to be inspired at the ranch.  So, I have decided to try to paint in the late afternoon and try to get the sunset colors of the landscape.  Most of the trees at the ranch are knarled and just plain messy.  This is a desert after all and they only get water when it rains,( not very often), snows or floods by the river.  In other words- they have had an extremely rough life.  I tried to get this down as quickly as I could but sunsets are just quick-- soon I was standing in the dark and everything had changed quite drastically.  It was kind of like being at a party and leaning over to tie your shoe and standing up to see that you are the only one left in the room.  I will try some more late afternoon paintings over there soon.

Cow Landscape

After Peg and I finished painting the first painting, she jumped right into another and me, being too lazy to move my easel, painted this scene right behind me.  Well I guess I did turn around.  I haven't painted too many cows but I do enjoy painting them when I take the time- they are just basically boxes with legs.  They must not have liked us painting them because right about the time we started, the whole herd took off to the north- what spoilsports.

A Bunny at the Ranch

5x7

I haven't been painting plein air much lately- well as much as I would like -too many trips and then catchup time but I have still been painting.  I decided to just work on drawing skills and trying to concentrate on details for a change of pace.  This small bunny was at the ranch this summer and wasn't too afraid - so I was able to snap off a few shots.   This was painted on illustration board with a coat of amber shellac- (thank you for the tip Marc Hanson). It is small 5x7, but it was a nice change from plein air.

A Painting from the Ranch

This was painted about a month ago- I thought I would drive over to the ranch and test the mosquito quotient to see if there would be any more painting there for awhile.  They were swarming but I was ready with a t-shirt on and a long shirt over that with long pants and mosquito spray.

They were everywhere and while painting, I looked down and there was approx. 20 to 30 landed on the front of my shirt- a little unnerving I would say.  Well, I haven't been back but I'm thinking in a couple of weeks it might just be bearable and I will have to do the mosquito test again.

Willow at the Ranch

This willow tree makes it difficult for the guys to hay on the west side of the ranch.  In fact, they finally had to create another road through some pasture to get to the other side- good thing- it would have been sad if they had started hacking off branches.  I'm not sure how old this tree is but I'm pretty sure it's a granddaddy. I painted this at about 7 in the morning- great light.

A Promise of Spring

The Wind has not blown for the last two days and I see slight bits of green here and there. The San Luis Valley is always the last part of Colorado to green up- the valley must just be like a big ice box or something. I have to help with prom this afternoon so knew that I had a very small window of opportunity to paint - so I ran over to the ranch and painted this 8 x 10. There were little pieces of green here and there- (the left field in the painting) but I had to look hard. The scene before me was beautiful even without the green so I set up and tried to capture the subtle beauty. I could here ducks quacking in the distance and a few cranes honking(?) here and there. It was a very enjoyable day.

February 28?

Does it look like tomorrow is going to be the first day of March? We are stuck in the winter zone and I hope we get out. This was painted at the ranch this morning and it snowed on me for half of the time I was there- I love the ranch -it is so diverse.

Well, vacation time is over and although I still have a house full of college kids, I need to get back to work. Frankly, I'm relieved because I was feeling rather worthless- doing absolutely nothing for so long- it feels good to have an agenda and lists full of things to do.

The painting above was done on New Years day- Jim took off snowmobiling and I just kind of slipped away and painted this-- I was actually planning to paint this just as the sun was setting but there were some pesky clouds that thwarted my plans so this is the painting I finished. I will have to try it again when the sky is clear and it's not too cold.

I have been working on a new web page so will let you know when it has loaded. I am going to keep it simple and have had a few snags along the way- but I really do like rapidweaver- it is a good web program and I don't have to read a book to configure it.

Before the Snow

It has been snowing quite a bit lately- the days are interesting- one day it will be below freezing and the next day it will be close to 60. I have been trying to get prepared for my show- invitations out, hanging MORE track lighting- just tying up loose ends and I really haven't been that efficient. I walk into my studio and I just start to walk around in circles , not getting much of anything done. The painting above was painted at the ranch right before the first snow- the day after I painted this it was cold and windy and started to snow that morning- I have lost a brush which I believe is over there but still have yet to retrieve it. I hope that I can get a little more excited to paint in the snow- I love the beautiful whites - I just don't like the cold- and inthe San Luis Valley- it does get COLD!

A Large Plein Air

I decided to go to the ranch and try something new- a large plein air. I decided to try a 20x24 because I actually had a canvas that size and it was toned a nice purple color so I was off... The beginning layout - just blocked in

I started to work on the mountain and tried to establish where my center of focus would be.

I worked on the trees to the left of the canvas- trying to show light shining through the trunks and I worked on water and reflections.

The final result. The sky was very interesting as there was major turbulance as I painted but there was no wind until I was about finished - then it started to kick in. The cows were pretty good at posing for me but there were so many that I was able to get any view I wanted -